re: Bitcoins were hacked yesterday?(Posted by foshizzle on 4/4/13 at 12:28 pm to Korkstand)

quote:DDoS' happen every day to many websites, and it is simply an attacker using a botnet to overload a website. Usually the goal is to cost the victim money due to website down time (in effect holding it hostage), but in this case the goal was to create a panic sell-off.

re: Bitcoins were hacked yesterday?(Posted by Korkstand on 4/4/13 at 12:32 pm to Broke)

quote:Why? What will it give you? A printout of a piece of paper with an encrypted code, that the lady at Wal-Mart will subsequently rip up when you try to pay for your Twinkies and pot pies.

It would function as a currency exchange. It will give you dollars and withdraw the equivalent bitcoins from your wallet, and it would probably let you put in dollars and deposit the equivalent into your bitcoin wallet.

re: Bitcoins were hacked yesterday?(Posted by Korkstand on 4/4/13 at 12:56 pm to Broke)

quote:Then why even frick with bitcoin if the end result is the USD? Am I missing something? Does bitcoin give free blowjobs or something?

Yeah, you're missing the part where you have to use whatever currency is accepted wherever you are. Think of bitcoin as the currency of a virtual nation. These ATMs will exchange currency for you. Why do we even frick with regular ATMs? Because sometimes you just can't use a card or check.

quote:Nah, it's more like a virtual gold. It's not currency but it can be exchanged to get currency when you need to buy something.

A valid criticism, and the main reason I think it will be difficult for bitcoin to move out of experimental territory and into mainstream use. It is very successful as far as experiments go, and I think it's a good proof of concept.

quote:Except gold actually exists......

This criticism is less valid, I think. Do your digital photos not exist?